#ROADTOBOA Interview: Husk

Here we go again… Last year we covered every band on the Hobgoblin New Blood and Jagermeister stages in the run-up to Bloodstock 2015. This year, we’re going one better and aim to have interviews from all the bands on those two stages as well as all of those on the SOPHIE stage prior to the event kicking off on August 11th. That’s almost 100 interviews to get online for you lucky people over the course of the next couple of weeks. I bloody love this job, but you lot owe me a beer at Catton Hall, right?

Scott (Drums) and Jak (Lead guitar) are cousins, and they started jamming Metallica and Pantera together in their Grandad’s spare room. Then after a few years they decided they wanted to start writing their own music and form a band. Through online advertisements and friends of friends we eventually put together the current line-up of Husk in 2012.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

Roughly four years now.

Where does the name of the band come from?

Husk is like a nightmare concept. It’s the fear of losing your identity, and being stripped of everything that defines you as a person. The pale-faced character in our artwork symbolises that concept.

What are your influences – individually or as a band?

They’re fairly wide-ranging between the four of us, but Gojira, Unearth, Pantera, System of a Down and Primus are some of the most influential for the band.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

“Death-Groove” is probably the easiest way to describe the essence of our sound. We take the dark, deathy edge of bands such as Slayer and mix it with Unearth’s groove. It’s probably the slap bass element that helps us stand out though. Bob (Bass) is really inspired by guys like Les Claypool and Ryan Martinie.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

We always push for intensity and showmanship on stage. Our sets have a mix of technical passages and bouncing grooves so we strive to make audiences feel a part of what we’re doing even when we aren’t thrashing around like frenzied animals! We’ve found that bands who inspire us are always visually entertaining and really put on “a show”. We’ve played a fair few gigs now and had some great support slots with bands such as Sylosis, Soulfly and Heart of a Coward. We feel privileged to have been a part of those.

When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?

We were fortunate enough to be chosen as winners of Wolverhampton’s Metal to the Masses competition. Big thank you to Mr Simon Hall for that! We’re incredibly humbled and excited as hell to play the New Blood Stage on Friday 12th August.

What sort of setlist can we expect?

Fast, heavy and dark… That’s the main staple of any Husk show, but we’re planning our Bloodstock set to be monstrous. We’ve got a couple of tracks from our Plague of Man EP, a few newer tracks… And “I Am Legion” to close the set. Hopefully we can get a major circle pit going in the tent for that!

Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?

Well we’ll be playing on Friday 12th, so there’s a chance we could clash with Evil Scarecrow or Behemoth. We’d love to catch both of those performances.

What are you working on at the moment?

We’re working hard to make our performance as best as it can possibly be. We’ve also got ideas for new music videos and recording new material in 2017… so keep your eyes peeled!

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?

Honestly we’re pretty reserved guys when we’re off stage, so we save the wild antics for the performance! Scott (Drums) once drank so much energy drink before a gig, he stood outside the venue hurling his guts up right before we were about to go onstage. That was more funny than wild though.

What advice would you give to a young band just starting out today?

Work hard, expect to fail before you succeed, and stay well grounded.

If you could be part of any 3-band line-up who else would you have on the bill? One band above you and one below – a chance to plug a smaller, unsigned act!

GOJIRA! They would have to headline because they’re just incredible. And then simply because they’re our mates and a great band, we’d say XVII who won the same Metal to the Masses competition in 2015. We get along well with those guys.

What stage / time are you playing at Bloodstock (if you have your slot yet!)

We’re on the Hobgoblin New Blood Stage, Friday 12th August. We’re not sure what time yet, but it’d be great to see as many of you there as possible!